|
THE CURSE OF THE
BAMBINO, PART 11 ...
IT'S TIME TO "COWBOY UP"
Pedro takes charge of the Angels
August 6, 2003
...
Pedro Martinez put on an eight-inning tour de force, survived a
ninth-inning dalliance with pyromania, and went on to post only his
second complete game of 2003 in a 4-2 win over the Angels at Fenway.
On a night when a sellout crowd of 35,040 packed the Fens, Martinez
was, for the most part, masterful, although he uncharacteristically
allowed 10 hits. The offense, so often anemic when Martinez has
pitched this year, banged out a matching 10 hits, including Nomar
Garciaparra's 20th home run of the season.
To top it
all, there was the Fabulous Flyin' Damon, who raced back to the Wall to make his
running spear of an Adam Kennedy blast to lead off the seventh that might have
been good for two or three bases had it not met its Venus-flytrap death in the
web of Damon's gloved right hand. The victory moved the Sox to within 2 1/2
games of the Yankees (5-4 losers to Texas) in the American League East and kept
them a half-game ahead of Oakland in the race for the wild-card playoff berth.
Martinez,
after getting four no-decisions and one victory in his previous five starts,
appeared intent on bringing in victory No. 8 all by himself. In all, Martinez
threw 128 pitches, 91 for strikes, and saved both his best and worst for last,
an electric ninth innning that he entered with what looked like a comfortable
4-1 lead.
But trouble
began with one out when defensive specialist David McCarty, acquired Tuesday on
waivers from the A's, botched Kennedy's grounder to first. Kennedy soon scooted
over to second (defensive indifference) with Bengie Molina at the plate. When
Molina popped to short for the second out, all looked well in hand. Not so. Robb
Quinlan followed with a run-scoring single to center, a good rip, and David
Eckstein knocked a double off the Wall, putting runners at second and third. To
make it all the worse, and all the more suspenseful, Martinez then hit Darin
Erstad with a pitch, loading the bases.
Sox skipper
Grady Little had no one warming in the pen when Martinez took the mound in the
ninth. When trouble began, closer Byung Hyun Kim began to loosen up. But
Martinez wasn't going anywhere, at least not with a two-run cushion on his side
of the box score and win-loss fate in his hand. Martinez's best work of the
night then came with No. 3 hitter Tim Salmon at the plate. He reached back and
fired six consecutive fastballs (average speed 94.67 miles per hour), ending the
triumph with a 96-m.p.h. heater that Salmon took for a called third strike. When
it was over, Martinez pointed toward the heavens, a night to remember.
The loser
was former Sox starter Aaron Sele, who allowed three runs across the fourth and
fifth innings, highlighted by a David Ortiz run-scoring triple and Garciaparra's
mammoth shot over the Wall in the fifth. Martinez gave one back in the sixth on
a Garret Anderson RBI double. The Sox added an insurance run in the eighth,
Damon delivering an RBI single up the middle after previously botching a
suicide-squeeze attempt that left pinch runner Damian Jackson for road kill.
|
